SPRING 2011
Thunder Bay Schutzhund Club
Club Report Spring 2011
The Thunder Bay Schutzhund Club trained indoors all winter on Saturdays and Tuesdays in preparation for our spring trial. The winter lasted longer than most and we began to wonder if we would ever get back out to the club or get any green grass to track on. By the time our trial on May 28th rolled around, at least two of our favourite tracking fields had greened up enough to use for the trial. Lol took on the job of tracking coordinator and she and Sherrel paced out all the fields in preparation for the arrival of Doug Deacon our trial judge. He was very pleased with the conditions as were George and Vlasta Kopecky who drove in from Winnipeg where the few fields they have were still under water from all the flooding in Manitoba. Doug chose the location of the 6 tracks to be run and our track layers Ken, John and Sherrel did an excellent job with all six tracks successfully completed. The day started out cool and damp with light rain so after tracking we headed back to the club for hot coffee and numerous types of muffins, pastries and cookies. The field was set up for obedience and after we had warmed up, the BH’s began with the Brothers von der Fan; Barqs and Jacki, Boris and George and Bisco and Vlasta. The fourth BH was Ken and his Mal Tracker. To Ken’s surprise, he got nervous and it manifested itself in quite a stiff performance. Did you know that it’s possible to do an entire BH routine without ever moving your arms? Yep, there was our Ken with his arms poker straight at his sides like a tin soldier while his dog heeled beside him barking trying to figure out what the heck was going on. All four BH’s were successful and after an extensive traffic sureness and temperament test, all were presented with their certificates. Barqs even got his own personalized trophy, a can of Barqs Root Beer. Thanks Claire.
Lol and Franki did a very good SchH 2 track in the morning and Jill succeeded with Millie for a TR1 and Hayley with a TR3. Jill also went on to complete an OB1 with Millie. Way to go Jill! Sure makes up for last year. Claire and Eyko were also successful with aTR3.
Jacki and Bizzy and Pino and Zeus were the final 2 dogs of the competition. Obedience was pretty uneventful but protection was a different story. Bizzy decided that he was going to re-bite after every out and I swear Zeus must have been watching because he did the same thing only worse. We both passed our IPO3’s in spite of our dogs’ antics.
The trial was over early enough to work dogs before dinner on Saturday and all day Sunday was dedicated to more work with tracking in the morning and obedience and protection in the afternoon. By the time dinner rolled around on Sunday we had fed Doug so much and so well that he barely had room for another bite.
Thanks Doug for a great trial and seminar. We had a lot of successes and a lot of laughs.
We wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without the help of every club member from our tracking coordinator Lol, track layers Ken, John and Sherrel, our helpers John and Pino, trial secretary Sherrel and everyone else who cooked, cleaned participated in the group or set up equipment. Thank you all and great job!
Thanks also to George and Vlasta from Winnipeg for supporting us and congrats on your BH’s.
We are planning on a trial in September so it’s back at it to work on and hopefully accomplish our goals.
Until then, happy training.